The tensions between Israel and Hamas escalated as Deputy Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri fell victim to an Israeli drone strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as a Hezbollah stronghold. This attack hints at the conflict’s potential to expand its reach across the region.
In response to queries from Reuters, the Israeli military declined to comment on reports from foreign media outlets.
Lebanon’s national news agency reported that the drone targeted a Hamas office, allegedly aiming at a gathering between Hamas officials and Lebanon’s Sunni Islamist Jama’a Islamiya faction. Tragically, the strike resulted in the deaths of four Palestinians and three Lebanese, according to two security sources.
This marked the first targeted assassination of a Hamas official outside the Palestinian Territories since the group’s deadly assault on Israeli territory earlier in October.
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s adviser, Mark Regev, refused to claim responsibility for the attack, he emphasized that it wasn’t an assault on the Lebanese state but rather a precise strike against the Hamas leadership.
Al-Arouri served as the deputy head of Hamas’s politburo and was a key figure in establishing its military wing, the Qassam Brigades. He had recently been in Lebanon and Qatar, where talks between Hamas and Israel, including discussions on hostages taken during the October assault, were mediated.
Hamas confirmed Al-Arouri’s death, also acknowledging the loss of two other Qassam Brigade officials, Samir Findi Abu Amer and Azzam Al-Aqraa Abu Ammar.
Reacting strongly, Hamas’s chief Ismail Haniyeh denounced the killing as a “terrorist act,” describing it as a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and an extension of Israel’s aggression against Palestinians.
Islamic Jihad vowed retaliation, promising that “the resistance will continue until the occupation is removed.”
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack, labeling it a “new Israeli crime” and seeking UN Security Council intervention.
In a written statement, Hezbollah condemned the strike and promised a response, asserting that the resistance was ready. The group announced an attack on Israeli forces across the border but didn’t specify a direct link to Al-Arouri’s killing.
Hezbollah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, plans an address on the fourth anniversary of the killing of Iranian Quds Force chief Qassem Suleimani. Previously, Nasrallah had warned Israel against such assassinations on Lebanese soil.
Hezbollah, based in Dahiyeh, has been engaged in almost daily exchanges of fire with Israel since Hamas’s October attack, mostly confined to the border region. However, the toll has been grim, with more than 100 Hezbollah fighters and nearly two dozen civilians, including children and journalists, losing their lives to Israeli strikes and shelling.
The repercussions continue, with over 22,000 Palestinians reported dead in a nearly three-month-old Israeli offensive in Hamas-run Gaza, a retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack, where Israel claims 1,200 individuals were killed and 240 taken hostage.